Lawmaker Calls for Drug Lord’s Extradition to U.S.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas) on Sunday called for newly captured Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, noting that the world’s once most powerful drug lord had escaped from a maximum-security prison in Mexico in 2001.

“I would ask that the Mexicans consider extraditing him to the United States where he will be put in a supermax prison under tight security where he cannot escape and be brought to justice with a life imprisonment sentence,” Mr. McCaul said on ABC’s “This Week.” He said “that would be the best course for not only Mexico, but also the United States in ensuring that what happened in 2001 does not happen again.”

Mr. Guzman, who is frequently equated with the late 1980s Colombia drug lord Pablo Escobar, rose from poverty to build a cocaine and marijuana empire that made him a billionaire and caused much of the violence that has killed tens of thousands of Mexicans in the last decade. His empire also stretched into the U.S., and he has already been indicted in multiple cities, including San Diego.

Mr. McCaul said that the question of whether Mr. Guzman is sent to the U.S. to face charges would depend on the Obama administration and how hard it pushed the matter with Mexico.

He also said that the arrest was proof that Mexico’s new administration was willing to crack down on drug cartels, countering expectations that the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto would accommodate the drug lords and seek a deal to reduce violence in exchange for allowing drug trafficking to continue.

“What has happened here is very significant in terms of the cooperation with Mexico,” Mr. McCaul said. “President Peña Nieto has demonstrated that he is tough on these cartels. He brought out the Los Zetas leader who is arguably the most lethal cartel and now the biggest fish ever, and that is El Chapo Guzman.”

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